In-State Medical School Admissions

http://www.doctorshadow.com/in-state-medical-school-admissions/This article was posted on
Friday, January 11th, 2013 at
4:10 pm in Medical Schools.

Medical Schools Generally Give Preference to In-State Applicants

A common decision for premedical students is choosing the medical school to which they should apply – in-state or out-of-state. The following reviews some statistics from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) of in-state medical school admissions in order to highlight the matriculant data for public and private medical schools across the United States. This may give premedical students some guidance and, in turn, keep them from spending money on application fees for schools in which their chances of admission are slim to none.

Medical Schools Do Not Accept Out-Of-State Applicants

The reality is that the missions of some medical schools in the U.S. are to provide physicians to the state in which they are located. For example, the Mercer University School of Medicine, an allopathic medical school located in Macon, Georgia, states “Only individuals who are legal residents of Georgia at the time of application are accepted.” Mercer University School of Medicine only accepts applications from students who are bona fide residents of Georgia, which coincides their mission as follows:

“The Mercer University School of Medicine (MUSM) was founded in
1982 with the mission of educating students to meet the health
care needs of rural and medically underserved areas in Georgia.”

Medical Schools Accept Few Out-Of-State Applicants

This is a concept appreciated by other medical schools that only accept applications from students located in-state. According to the AAMC U.S. Medical School Applications and Matriculants Statistics, the following states admitted ZERO (0) applicants from other states in 2012:

Furthermore, there are some medical schools that only offer admissions to a certain percentage of the incoming class. The following 18 medical schools offer admissions to less than 10 percent of the applicant pool.

Other medical schools that are not quite as selective when including residency as a factor of admissions, but still accept less than 25 percent of applicants from out of state, include the following 30 medical schools:

Where should you apply to med school

What does all of this mean for medical school applicants? Be reasonable in the selection of medical schools to which you apply. Although you may have always dreamed of attending SIU School of Medicine, if you have been a resident of New York your entire life, you simply will not go to SIU. Furthermore, if you are not a resident of the states in which the above medical schools are located, you should probably consider other options. Alternatively, if you are a resident of a state in which the above medical schools are located, you should DEFINITELY apply!

Summary

Concisely, the public medical schools in the United States generally give preference to in-state applicants. The data from the AAMC indicates that of the 141 medical schools in the U.S., over 52 of them ( > 36%) show preference to in-state applicants, which is reflected in their admissions statistics. As a result, premed students should focus on applying to private schools or schools located in their home-state. While this does not always hold true, it is the case in most states.